The race was the third of the three-year long Centennial era, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the opening of the track (1909) and 100th anniversary of the first Indianapolis 500
(1911). The race was suspended during WWI (1917–18) and WWII (1942–45),
therefore the 100th running of the event will not occur until 2016. At
times during the month of May, the race was advertised as the 100th Anniversary Indianapolis 500 and the Centennial Indianapolis 500.

The race has been billed as "The Most Important Race in History." It was the final Indy 500 contested with the current normally aspirated "spec" Dallara IR-05/Honda Indy V-8 machines. In 2012, the series will switch to a new chassis and utilize turbocharged engines.

Event news

Tanner Foust from Team Hot Wheels sped down a 90-foot ramp, suspended on
a 10-story high door and jumped across the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway's infield inside the fourth turn.

On February 21, the Speedway announced the start time for the race would be 12 noon EDT (UTC-04), one hour earlier that it had been scheduled from 2006–2010.

The 100th anniversary Indy 500 Celebration of Automobiles was held the weekend of opening day. It was a classic/antiquecar show and contest featuring automobiles linked to race and to the city of Indianapolis from 1911–1961.

Staind headlined the annual Carb Day concert on Friday May 27, with special guest Papa Roach.

On April 5, Donald Trump was named the driver of the Chevrolet Camaro SS pace car. However, after mounting criticism of Trump, and a Facebook campaign to oust him from the position, he announced he was stepping down from the honor due to business and time constraints. He was replaced by four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A. J. Foyt.

On the morning of the race, a special auto stunt was performed in the infield. For "IZOD Presents Hot Wheels Fearless at the 500", a mystery stunt driver (later to be revealed as Tanner Foust) from Team Hot Wheels sped down a 90-foot ramp, suspended on a 10-story high door and jumped across the track's infield inside the fourth turn.

All of the 269 living Indy 500 veteran drivers were invited to
attend the race. About 125 attended during race weekend (not including
those in the race). A total of 21 of the 27 living winners of the Indianapolis 500 attended the race. Those in attendance included:

The race received a 4.3 overnight rating on ABC, up 7% over 2010. The top local markets included Indianapolis (14.5), Dayton (10.5), and Ft. Meyers/Naples (8.5).[26] The final rating was 4.0 with 6.711 million viewers, up 11% in ratings and 16% in viewership compared to 2010.

Entry list

On April 15, 2011, the Official Entry List was released, featuring 83 cars for 42 entries. As of April 15, thirty-five car/driver combinations had been announced.[28]
On May 9, a revised version of the entry list was released. The entry
from China Racing was withdrawn. The final list includes 79 cars for 41
entries.

Thursday, May 12 – Rookie Orientation Program

Weather: 83 °F(28 °C), overcast

Practice summary: Seven rookies participated in the rookie
orientation program. For 2011, the session was open to rookies only in
order to pass the four-part rookie test. There would not be any
refresher tests (phases three and four) for part-time veteran drivers as
had been in years past. The drivers included: J. R. Hildebrand, James Hinchcliffe, James Jakes, Charlie Kimball, Ho-Pin Tung, Pippa Mann and Scott Speed.
Six drivers completed all four phases, while Jakes completed three.
Jakes can complete the fourth and final phase at any time prior to time
trials on May 21. J. R. Hildebrand (221.533 mph) turned the fastest lap of the day, and no incidents were reported. An eighth Indy 500 rookie is entered, Jay Howard,
who is an IndyCar Series veteran (four starts in 2010). He failed to
qualify for the Indy 500 in 2010, however since he passed all four
phases of the rookie test, and has other oval experience from 2010, he
was exempted from participating.

Practice

Saturday, May 14 – Opening Day

Weather: 67 °F(19 °C), overcast/ rain

Practice summary: On opening day, 32 cars took to the track, completing 669 laps with no incidents reported. Ed Carpenter
led the speed chart at 224.786 mph. Around 3 p.m., rain halted the
session, but the track dried, and practice resumed for a short time. At
5:30 p.m., rain returned and the session came to a close.[32]

Sunday, May 15

Monday, May 16

Weather: 58 °F(14 °C), partly cloudy/ overcast

Practice summary: In the first full practice for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 (1,379 total laps run), Alex Tagliani of Sam Schmidt Motorsports ran the fastest lap of the day, and of the month so far, at 225.878. The top three rounded out with former winner Scott Dixon coming in second and Graham Rahal finishing third on the day. A total of 39 drivers took to the track, on a cool, windy afternoon. No incidents were reported.[34]

Tuesday, May 17

Weather: 51 °F(11 °C), overcast/ rain

Practice summary: Cold temperatures delayed the start of practice until 1:12 p.m. Firestone requires the ambient and track temperature to be over 50°F before cars are allowed to enter the track. Only two drivers (teammates Marco Andretti and Mike Conway)
managed to take laps, and few teams left the garage area. Lingering
moisture kept the yellow light on most of the afternoon, and the track
closed officially for the day at 4:05 p.m.

Wednesday, May 18

Weather: 57 °F(14 °C), overcast/ rain

Practice summary: Rain washed out practice for the entire day.

Thursday, May 19

Weather: 72 °F(22 °C), partly cloudy

Practice summary: After two consecutive rainouts (and three overall), the cars took to the track for a full day of practice. At 12:25 p.m., Simona de Silvestro's car lost control in the north chute after leaking fluid, causing her to spin and flip up into the catch fence.
The car came to a rest upside-down, with flames coming from the sides,
but she climbed from the car and walked to the safety truck. She was
transported to Methodist Hospital with second degree burns on her right hand. Following the accident, practice resumed uninterrupted for the rest of the day with Will Power taking the top position, putting up the fastest speed of the month to date. Power was followed by Alex Tagliani and teammate Ryan Briscoe in the top speed charts.

Friday, May 20 – Fast Friday

Weather: 84 °F(29 °C), sunny/ partly cloudy

Practice summary: Fast Friday saw the second consecutive day of full practice. Alex Tagliani
was atop the leader board for most of the day, like many of the
practice sessions before, breaking the record speed during the month at
over 228 MPH. However, later in the day, three-time Indianapolis 500
winner Hélio Castroneves
took to the top five in practice for the first time this month, running
a best 228.611 MPH. Castroneves stayed in first position for the rest
of the day with Tagliani finishing second, who has finished in the top
three on all three full practices of the year. The 2008 Indianapolis 500
winner, Scott Dixon finished third on the day with a speed over 228 MPH.

Late in the day, reports surfaced that Scott Speed had quit Dragon Racing, after having trouble getting up to speed. The rumor was denied.[38]

Time Trials

Saturday May 21 – Pole Day

Weather: 78 °F(26 °C), partly cloudy/ periodic rain

Practice

Practice summary: The final practice before Pole Day
commenced at 8:00 AM EDT with the first group taking the track for 30
minutes of practice. In the first session, Ryan Briscoe
crashed his car coming out on turn two and was forced to practice the
rest of the day with his back-up car. After the green flag came back out
there were no more interruptions during the practice with the second
group finishing their 30 minutes of practice and the remainder of the
time given to all the cars for practice. After the two hours session, it
was Alex Tagliani who held the top position, with Buddy Rice making his first appearance in the "fast five", and Will Power rounding out the top three.

First segment summary: The first segment was scheduled from
11 a.m. until 4 p.m. All drivers in the qualifying order were guaranteed
at least one opportunity to make a qualifying attempt. The top 24 would
make up the provisional starting field. The top nine would advance to
the pole position "shootout." Alex Tagliani set the pace early, with a run of 226.954 mph. Other drivers putting in top 9 speeds included Dan Wheldon, Townsend Bell, and Will Power. The day was headlined by several part-time IndyCar teams, while several full-time contenders struggled mightily. Penske failed to get all three of their cars in the top 9; after his morning practice crash, Ryan Briscoe failed to make the top 24. Hélio Castroneves, trying to become the first driver to win three consecutive Indy poles, missed the top 9. All five cars of Andretti Autosport struggled, with John Andretti the only driver to crack the top 24. Ed Carpenter was one of the final drivers to make an attempt, and qualified with an impressive 226.171 mph, good enough for 6th fastest for Sarah Fisher Racing. After being burned in a crash on Thursday, Simona de Silvestro made three qualifying attempts, and on her third attempt, managed to qualify 24th. The only crash of the session was by Ho-Pin Tung, who wrecked on his final lap and suffered a concussion. A short rain shower ended the session about 25 minutes early.

Fast Nine Shootout summary: Rain delayed the start of the
Fast Nine "shootout," therefore each of the nine participants were
allowed only one attempt at the pole position. The top nine drivers from
the earlier segment took to the track in reverse order of speed. Oriol Servià set the pace early with a run of 227.168 mph. Dario Franchitti was running fast enough to clinch a front row position, but he ran out of fuel on the final lap and dropped to ninth. Scott Dixon
was the second to last driver to make an attempt. He took over the
provisional pole position from Servià, and he himself ran out of fuel in
the last few seconds of his run. Alex Tagliani was the final driver to go out. His run of 227.472 mph secured the pole position for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

Sunday May 22 – Bump Day

Weather:

Practice

Practice summary: Patrick Carpentier took over for Scott Speed in the Dragon Racing
entry, and took several shake down laps in the morning session.
However, his effort ended when he crashed in turn 1. Around noon, Dragon Racing announced they were withdrawing, and would not attempt to qualify. Charlie Kimball topped the speed chart with a lap of 226.822 mph.

Qualifying

Bump Day summary – First segment: Qualifying began at noon, with thunderstorms approaching. Only two cars (Ana Beatriz and Graham Rahal)
made it onto the track before heavy rains fell at the track. Track
crews dried the racing surface, and the track re-opened for qualifying
at 2:30 p.m.

Second segment: A hectic period of qualifying saw the field filled to 33 cars, and bumping began. Paul Tracy
took to the track, with weather once again threatening. He completed
his run in light misty rain, and bumped his way into the field with the
fastest run of the day. Danica Patrick
was the next car in line at 3:15 p.m., and the only car that had not
yet made an attempt Sunday. However, the rain returned, and halted track
activity. There was considerable concern that Patrick may not get an
opportunity to qualify, if the rain continued the remainder of the day.

Third segment: Crews dried the track, and it re-opened at 4:45 p.m. Danica Patrick was the first car out, and bumped her way in comfortably. The rest of the Andretti Autosport team, however, was struggling with speed. Mike Conway made three attempts, and was too slow to qualify. In the final fifteen minutes, Marco Andretti was on the bubble, and his teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay was the second slowest. Alex Lloyd took to track, and bumped out Marco Andretti in the final five minutes. Andretti hurried to get back in the qualifying line, but was beaten by James Jakes.
Jakes was waved off after two slow laps, which gave Andretti one final
chance to bump his way back in. With 55 seconds left before the 6
o'clock gun, Andretti pulled away from the pits. His qualifying run of
224.628 mph bumped Ryan Hunter-Reay from the field.

Carb Day

Indianapolis 500 Final Practice – Friday May 27

Weather: 61 °F(16 °C), partly cloudy

Practice summary: The final practice before the 2011
Indianapolis 500 saw all 33 qualified cars take to the track during the
hour. Former winner Scott Dixon saw the fastest time of the session while pole-sitter, Alex Tagliani, who had been very fast for most of the month, came into second with a lap speed of 224.739 MPH. Former winner Dario Franchitti closed out the top three for the day, a day when over 1,000 laps were run by all cars in the preparation for the race.

Race

Summary

First Half

The 95th running of the Indianapolis 500 began at 12:00 PM EDT on a
hot, muggy day, shortly after the traditional pre-race ceremonies of the
invocation, national anthem, and the singing Back Home Again in Indiana by Jim Nabors. Mari Hulman George
gave the staring command around 12:05 PM, as the cars took two parade
laps and one pace lap, led by four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A. J. Foyt, who was driving the pace car. The green flag came out to see Scott Dixon pass by pole-sitter Alex Tagliani
to take the early lead in the race. The first 20 laps of the race saw a
relatively smooth pace set in. Unlike past years there was no accident
in the first two laps, with the first caution coming out on Lap 18 when Takuma Sato made contact with the wall. During the first caution period many team made pit-stops including Will Power
who left the pit area and drove a lap without a left-rear tire, which
all but eliminated the IndyCar points leader from having an opportunity
to win the race.

Shortly following the green flag restart (which was changed to a
two-car abreast start during the drivers meetings) Sato's teammate, E. J. Viso
was turned heading into turn 1 by James Hinchcliffe and was the next
driver to make contact with the wall and eliminate himself from the
race. Following the cleanup and restart after Viso's crash saw the field
taking shape and aligning themselves for the long 400+ miles remaining.
Simona de Silvestro,
who was burned in a crash earlier in the month, was not able to pick up
speed in her back-up car and quickly fell from 23rd position, to last.
On lap 44, it was clear that the car would not be able to keep up with
the field, she was called into the pits and her day was over.

Defending winner Dario Franchitti, along with Scott Dixon, Alex Tagliani, and Oriol Servià
all began to take their places at the top of the field with each of
them leading more than 10 laps in the race respectively. Later accidents
occurred with rookies Jay Howard and James Hinchcliffe. Howard lost a right-rear wheel on lap 61, while Hinchcliffe slid high in turn 3 and bounced off the wall at the halfway mark.

Second Half

Following James Hinchcliffe's crash on lap 101, the green flag
remained out for over 40 laps as many different drivers shared the lead
and got in position for the shootout in the final 10. On lap 148, it was
the pole-sitter Alex Tagliani who would be called into pit lane after
making slight contact with the wall. Tagliani, who had not had a good
day, started in first, fell all the way down to 12th before the race,
was finished for the day, with his final finish position being 28th. One
of the few multi-car crashes of the day occurred on lap 158 between Ryan Briscoe and Townsend Bell. Up to that point in the day, Team Penske
had been running slow and really did not have a good shot at any of
their drivers winning the race, and with the crash and elimination of Ryan Briscoe all hope seemed gone as Helio Castroneves
and Will Power were both down due to bad pit stops and slow cars. With
no more lengthy cautions the remainder of the race it turned into a
fight for the lead as the laps dwindled down.

As the race prepared to go back to green on lap 164, a handful of
drivers ducked into the pit area to top off their fuel, in hopes of
going the distance without another pit stop. Dario Franchitti and J. R. Hildebrand were among those who gave up their track position, and topped off their fuel.

For the first time in his Indy career, Graham Rahal took the lead of
the race and held it for six laps. However, he lost a battle to Scott
Dixon and was forced to a pit stop which dropped out of the top five.
However, he was able to finish the race in third place. Tony Kanaan also
saw his flirt with Indy glory as he made his way all from the middle of
the pack to second place at one point, but was forced as well to drop
on a pit stop with less than 20 laps to go. As the race came to down to
its final 15 laps, it was still Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti, two
Chip Ganassi Racing cars and former winners, who looked like they would
win the race. However, late in the race after a series of pit stops by
most in the lead, it was an unlikely Bertrand Baguette who would lead
the race as the action came to it climax. With both Dixon and
Franchitti, not expecting another yellow and taking the pits, both
falling back, it seemed like a new face would be awarded the winner of
the Indianapolis 500.

The final ten laps became a battle between Dixon, Baguette, Dan Wheldon, and rookie J. R. Hildebrand.
It was Dixon and Baguette who battled for the lead with about eight
laps to go. With three laps to go, Baguette pitted for fuel and Dixon
slowed to conserve fuel. This gave the lead to J.R. Hildebrand as
Wheldon moved into second place. As the field was given the white flag,
it seemed all but certain a rookie would win the 500 for the first time
since Castroneves won it in 2001. Hildebrand moved his way down into the
north short chute and down into turn four. Coming in on the front
stretch the rookie went high to avoid the slower car of Charlie Kimball,
who was on the inside line, and collided with the wall. Hildebrand
finished the race despite the collision, but not before Dan Wheldon was
able to come from behind and cross the line first.[40]

Post-race

Dan Wheldon
become the 18th person to win more two or more Indianapolis 500's, his
first coming in 2005. The 200th lap was the only one he led in the race,
breaking Joe Dawson's
99-year-old record for the fewest laps led by an Indy winner. As he
took to victory lane, he celebrated with the traditional ceremonies of
the wreath, glass of milk, and the presentation of the Borg Warner Trophy. As the celebration was occurring, his former team Panther Racing
considered filing for a review, stating that Wheldon made an illegal
pass during the yellow on Hildebrand's car. In the end, video showed
that the yellow did not come out until after Wheldon had passed, and
even if it would have come out before the pass, the president of
competition ruled that Hildebrand's car was a "wounded car", and was
therefore allowed to be passed in the race.[41]

Wheldon's average speed of 170.265 mph was the fourth-fastest Indy
500 in history, and was the first Indy 500 completed in less than three
hours since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000.

Note1: Unofficially Oriol Servià finished 5th, 8.8757 seconds behind the leader, with Scott Dixon
placing 6th. When the official results were posted, it was determined
that Servia passed Dixon on the final lap while the yellow caution light
was illuminated. Officials re-instated Dixon to 5th, and dropped Servia
to 6th in the final standings.

Note2: After qualifying had concluded, Bruno Junqueira was replaced by Ryan Hunter-Reay, who did not qualify for the 500. Junqueira received full qualifying points for a 19th place qualification.